Is competence contagious?

Speaking Tuesday about the exploding COVID-19 virus, the head of the Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases said, “As more and more countries experience community spread, successful containment at our borders becomes harder and harder,” adding that Americans should prepare for “significant disruption.”

Speaking Tuesday about the same virus, President Trump told journalists in India that the bug is “very well under control in our country” and “is going to go away.”

Forgive us for believing the sober warning of Dr. Nancy Messonnier, whose public health career began in 1995, over the dismissive insouciance of a man who peddled irresponsible fears and bad advice about Ebola in 2014 and who now seems focused on calming shaken stock markets.

The Trump administration owes America a tight, coordinated response, which is not what they’re delivering at this stage.

Before a congressional committee Tuesday, Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf didn’t have up-to-date information on how many cases of the virus there were inside the United States. He didn’t know exactly how the bug is transmitted. Asked how the estimated mortality rate for this coronavirus, estimated at 2%, compares to that of influenza, Wolf said the two rates were about the same. In fact, COVID-19 appears to be about 20 times more lethal.

None of this inspires confidence. Nor does a paltry $1.25 billion request in emergency funds to ramp up the federal response, or the fact that Trump nixed the National Security Council position dedicated to global health security.

If the U.S. dodges this viral bullet, as we pray it will, it won’t be the result of Team Trump’s foresight and agility.